March, 2024 Newsletter
KAMO March, 2024 Newsletter – 5 pages
For comments related to this document, contact Mike
President?s message – Hello KAMO members and friends,
This is KAMO president Mark Walters with my part of The Newsletter. Last Saturday 11 of us representing all six active chapters of KAMO met in Stevens Point and had an excellent day of getting it done conversations and new plans. After several years Bob Nicksic of The Meadow Valley Chapter will no longer be one of our 2 vice presidents and Bob will be replaced by Greg Pahl of The Dodge County Chapter of KAMO.I feel that Greg will be an excellent fit at our second vice president along with Mike Brown and wanna thank all three of these men
for years of hard work.
We have made the change in the bylaws that the president of KAMO shall have his or her name on all chapter bank accounts in case a chapter ceases to operate. I will have to get the info from each treasurer on just what to do in their individual case.
We also agreed to do a statewide raffle to generate additional funds for the state with a small part going to each chapter. There will be 4 of us on this committee and I feel that KAMO will do very well with this idea.
In a very short period of time it will be turkey season followed by six weeks of hunting wild turkey. I enjoy taking kids hunting in the spring and am well aware that KAMO members will be taking lots of kids out.
With that I would like to say thank you to all of you for everything that you do for KAMO!
Mark
Chapter Reports –
Baraboo – The Baraboo River Chapter held our monthly meeting on March 11th at the Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center. We discussed the upcoming State Meeting on March 23rd and the options available for the Joe Hunt 2024. Rick Miotke will be representing our Chapter at State and has confirmed we paid our annual dues. Our small group recorded 50 hours of getting kids outdoors in the past month, but we were missing a few members at this meeting. We have a couple of mentors set up for the Youth Turkey Hunt April 13th & 14th. One of our newest members?Craig will be giving a presentation on KAMO to the Lake Delton Sportsman?s Club in April. We also had a discussion on the Friends of the MacKenzie Center and all of the proposed changes at the property. The Maple Syrup Festival is April 6th at the MacKenzie Center. Our next meeting will be held on April 8th at Rivers Edge.
Thanks,
Greg
Coulee – On Tuesday, March 12th, Coulee ran a campfire event at Pettibone Park. 22 kids, several parents and staff from the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters and The Goodfight Community Center were present. Some of our mentors have participated in conducting two hunter education classes on Saturday, March 16th at the Omni Center..
Dodge County Conservation – We started the month off by teaching another Hunters Safety Class. Pictures of the graduated class can be found on our Facebook page or on the Website.Myself, along with our Vice president Greg Pahl attended the State BOD meeting in Stevens Point and Greg was voted to fill the VP position for the State the Bob Nisik held. Congratulate Greg next time you see him . We ended the month taking 9 kids and 6 mentors to The Outdoor Sportsmans expo at Kalahari in Wis. Dells.. Fun was had by all on the mini bus and we will be having more outings in the future.
We also received grant money from BDACF. to use for our up coming Bowling event and our Kettle Moraine hike as well. Get a kid outside and see what happens. I would like to Give Mike Brown a Big Shout out for all the work he does behind the scenes for KAMO and Our Chapter as well. Thanks Mike from everyone at DCC KAMO.
Respectively Jim Braker Pres.
Meadow Valley – Highlights for the Meadow Valley Chapter meeting held 13 March 2023.
7-8 Kids went to the fishing expo in Madison WI.,KAMO member James Neulun will be coaching the New Lisbon fishing club.
Discussed the bow loaner program, that will become active later in the summer or early fall.
Scholarships seem to be lacking at New Lisbon High School, Mark was going to check with Necedah.
Learn to hunt Turkey – need to contact Dan Berry.
Learn to hunt Bear – need more mentors – baiting starts in april. Mentors will need to complete a DNR background check.
Thanks,
Jim
?
March 23rd, 2024 Convention notes
In attendance: Jim Braker, Bob Brodeur, Mike Brown, Dwaine Drewa, Randy Hines, Johnny Johnson, Rick Mioltke, Jeff Moll, Greg Pahl, Jim Rydmark, Mark Walters.
Intro by Mark Walters.
The state’s financial statement was passed around and some expenses were verified. The cost of our website hosting is $29.70 per year and was a recent deduction. The clothing order from Advertising Concepts was over $1000. Chapters that took some clothing home with them reimbursed the state during the meeting. The overall balance was over $16,000.
Joe Hunt – We?ll go to MacKenzie December 6th, 7th, and 8th. Learn to Hunt. Out of normal season. Will have to be approved by Columbia County Wildlife Biologist through LTH application process. Mac Kenzie property may not be available that Saturday, the 7th. Bob Brodeur was optimistic about the availability of additional off-site hunting areas.
Dwaine Drewa brought up the prospect of having an all chapter summer camp, possibly in late july or early August. Lost Lake Cabins on the Chequamegon – Nicolet Forest seems like a great facility. Cabins, lodge, recreation hall, trails, beach, fire pit, 92 acre lake. Lake stocked with trout, perch, smallmouth bass. 2025 might be the most likely year to start, but could happen sooner.
Baraboo?s camp on the Castle Rock Lake runs every year and it is also an all chapter event. Dodge County went in to this last year and Jim said it was a blast.
State funding – With the prospect of opening up a summer camp and being more aggressive with activities and growth generally, the group agreed that boosting the state?s finances would be wise. Chapters agreed that selling 50/50 raffle tickets would be a viable fundraising option. These funds would be non-discretionary – could be spent on whatever. Randy and Mike expressed that in the Coulee Region, where over 1,000 nonprofits operate, there is substantial competition for funding and raffle tickets are often difficult to sell there. Coulee will try its best.
Rick, Greg, Mark, and Bob said that they would look into this.
Mike and Randy offered to look into the world of grants that could be applied for. These funds are often specific for a purpose, but there are alot of options.
.Inserted new statement into bylaws – ?A state level officer must have access to each chapter?s bank account. This officer will be put on the account when new chapters are initiated. In the case of existing chapter accounts, if an officer is not already on the account, the chapter president shall make an arrangement with the state president?.
Greg Pahl was elected as a new Vice President. There are two Vice Presidents. The other is Mike Brown of La Crosse.
The decision was made that the Yellow River Chapter be suspended, but not dissolved. The hope is that we will hear from someone in that area interested in running a chapter and they won?t have to start from scratch. For example, they already have a bank account, which at inception would require a three step process.
Insurance – Our agent now resides in Mauston. It is important for periodic face to face contact with him – Travis Weiss, with The Insurance Center. Mark Walters and Jim Rydmark offered to establish and maintain with Travis. Our liability policy is through a company called SECURA. Mike stated that the list of exclusions has grown, and it may be prudent to look around for another company that insures youth groups. The Philadelphia Insurance company is considered to be a good place to look.Please contact Mike if you would be willing to take on this task.
Website – The homepage has lost some of its appeal. The awesome slideshow that was put in originally has disappeared somewhere along the way. Chapters need easy access to put in pictures and narrative. The homepage needs reformatting generally, to accommodate a wider range of photos.
Mike admitted that he is slow in getting pictures on the website. He is busy and it can be hard to keep track of pictures sent by chapters and the narrative that goes with them. Since the convention, some chapter members have been added as administrators to their own page..
Mike suggested that chapters put their photos and narrative on the KAMO blog on the Lake-link.com forums – general outdoor discussion section. Our Lake-link blog gets viewed over 800 times a week and it is not even added to very often by any of us, whereas a chapter page gets viewed an average of 5 times per week. That adds up to a 160/ 1 ratio.
Mike will look into the website needs discussed, but it will likely take months (the design company has lost a critical employee who used to quickly get changes done.
So, how can you help? Send Mike some particularly good pictures that could be used in a homepage slideshow. The original slideshow had some great pics – kid handling a snake, kids sliding down a hill, kids at a picnic, etc. If you have a great picture you could send it to Mike. He will save and store your gem until enough are accumulated – 7 or more.
Also needed is a good fishing group picture that has a landscape orientation – horizontally long to use on the homepage header..
The group looked through samples of golf/ polo shirts and picked out a version that is $24 and comes in four colors. Soon, I (Mike) will send something to each chapter so that they can make an order. Advertising Concepts in La Crosse will make them and they can be mailed.